


Infinite Possibilities

by betterthensomethingsoutthere



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-01
Updated: 2016-02-01
Packaged: 2018-05-17 13:41:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5871757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/betterthensomethingsoutthere/pseuds/betterthensomethingsoutthere
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rose Quartz is leading Pink Diamonds troops to settle another planet, but this one is so different.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Infinite Possibilities

Rose Quartz, over millenniums of strong effective leadership, had risen to be Pink Diamond's top general. After completing colonization of the previous solar system under Pink Diamond's control, they had moved on to this single star system. The 3rd planet offered the greatest variety of resources, so it was decided colonization would start there. After initial planning was complete, the command center was built on the planet's moon for Pink Diamond to better monitor the progress of her ambitious project. 

Rose Quartz had immediately loved the planet. Most places she had seen were rocky with very limited foliage. But here....here there was life everywhere. From organic forms that consumed sunlight and nutrients, to soft fur covered mammals that roamed the surface. It was as if she understood the flora here. When they stripped the land to build the kindergarten, Rose felt something shift. It was an unease she was having trouble shaking. She had done this so many times before. Build a base, clear the planet, colonize with native grown gems. Watching the Peridots peel back the layers of soil, where even that was teeming with life, made her ill. After they had started production at the kindergarten, Pink Diamond had ordered Rose to take her troops and start clearing construction areas of indigenous life. 

With growing unease Rose Quartz led her troops across the land. They stayed and acted as guards and extra gem power as the first desert structure was built. This place was so different then where they had landed. The ground was almost fluid in a way, flowing across the land in waves and great cresting dunes. Yet even here, the organic life persevered. She knew that in the end, Pink Diamond would raze this planet and leave nothing but uniformity. All this diversity was inconvenient for colonization.

They boarded liquid transports to cross to the next land mass. Rose spent her time near the Lapis Lazuli propelling them across the oceans, looking into the waters below. Life was there too, swimming beneath them, living and thriving in a liquid suspension. She knew all of this would need to be drained, and Rose Quartz wavered. 

They landed on a beach. Sand was here too, but it was so different when wet. Once the Galaxy Warp was complete they continued on along the coast. Construction had begun on the Crystal Temple overlooking the sea. Not long after the equipment had been warped in and transported to the site, the Peridots had started to complain of bipedal organics that had damaged one of the drills. On Pink Diamond's orders, Rose Quartz took a small detachment of Quartz to investigate and clear them out. 

What she came across staggered her already wavering determination. These creatures were unlike anything she had come across in the universe. They were self aware and so very interesting. The creatures had built simple structures, spoke in what was clearly an organized language, and their forms were strangely similar to that of the gems own physical constructs. It was almost eerie. These creatures that looked so close to them, yet were utterly different.

She and the detachment spent time with them, orders forgotten as their leader was distracted by her own internal preoccupation with this planet. She learned that they consumed other organics to fuel their forms. That they didn't begin life fully formed, but rather grew for a period. They were so fascinating!   
Two days later, Rose reported the success of clearing the indigenous life to Pink Diamond.   
While work continued on shaping the mountain, Rose continued to visit these complex creatures on her own. She often found herself there. Hearing stories of their people, and learning about this planet. She was even with them the first time it rained. This planet had water fall from the sky! This earth was truly amazing, and Rose Quartz was going to save it.

**********

Pink Diamond's Pearl hated going to the surface. The moon base was fine, but down on the planet, there was just so much that was sticky, or dirty, or just unpleasant to come in contact with. Pink Diamond had been unable to reach Rose Quartz remotely, so Pearl was sent with Rose's orders clutched in hand. She complained as she warped down, she complained as she followed the tracks down the coast to their location, she complained as she entered the camp with huge machinery parked to one side. 

But Pearl would be much less annoyed once she found Rose Quartz. The gentle general had always caused a strange reaction in Pearl. Maybe it was that Rose Quartz was the only one to ever treat her with true respect. Pearl envied the surety and power Rose wielded. The command that she bore with such ease, yet the gentleness that still remained in a gem that had spent her existence fighting in the name of Pink Diamond. But such thoughts were unbecoming of a Pearl. She should be thankful that her life was simple. Follow orders, serve Pink Diamond. No one would ever expect her to be able to fight, or build, or create. Pearl sighed heavily and allowed herself to think the thought that had plagued her for the last two thousand years. What if a Pearl could be more then just a Pearl?

When alone, she had learned that she could summon a weapon. The first time she had done it, the blade had winked out of existence with her shock. She stumbled back and fell on her butt. Pearl had sat stunned on the floor and laughed. Here she was, pulling a weapon like she was some kind of quartz. Pearls never went to battle, she would never need such a thing as a weapon. Yet.....what if she wanted it?

Pearl entered Rose Quartz's tent. It was empty, but a good Pearl would just wait. Pearl sat gracefully and tried to still her mind. She glanced around the room, maps and blueprints lay spread across the table. A row of swords stood in a rack against one wall. Pearl stared at the weapons with interest. They must just be here for storage, surely no one would mind......before good sense caught up to her, Pearl stood and grasped the hilt of one. With the forms she had only been able to see in texts, Pearl wielded the sword. She thrust and parried across the rug floor in delight. Maybe a Pearl didn't have to stay just a Pearl. 

As one would expect, this is the moment Rose returned. Pearl turned from her thrust to see the general standing at the entry watching her. She immediately dropped to the floor, placing the sword down before her. “General Rose! I'm...I'm so sorry, I wasn't thinking....” Pearl's thin form shuddered as she knelt there pleading.   
“Pearl, you've done nothing wrong.” Rose crossed to her, pulling the shaking gem up to stand.   
Pearl's eyes stared wildly at her, “Please don't report me to Pink Diamond, I just, I just wanted to hold it.”  
Rose spoke calmly, “I'm not going to report you, you've done nothing wrong.”  
In the back of her mind, all Pearl could hear was but I'm a Pearl.  
Pearl took a deep breath, and used her projection to relay Pink Diamond's orders. Rose Quartz was to take her troops and wipe out another indigenous settlement to the west.  
Rose's face became troubled.   
“Pearl, I'm going to show you something so you can relay it back to Pink Diamond for me.”

Rose led her out into the growing evening. They trekked past the equipment hollowing out spaces in the hillside. Pearl followed her further into the brush. They kept going into the night, but eventually they crested a hill, and there in the valley burned a bright fire. Pearl watched as the humans sang and danced around the fire. They were joyous, she couldn't stop a giggle at how wild it was. A hand grasping hers pulled her back. Rose pulled her down the hill and greeted them with familiarity. A small voice told Pearl she needed to get back to Pink Diamond, that this was madness. But Rose was hypnotic, how she interacted with them, how Rose took her hand and pulled her to dance around the fire. This was so crazy, she was a Pearl. But Rose didn't seem to care, they spun and twirled and the humans seemed to simply accept it. Their voices rang out, their drums thumped an unrepentant beat, flutes and lyres played into the texture. As the night went on Pearl felt herself let go. She felt so safe, and at the same time stronger with Rose. Pearl closed her eyes and let go. Rose spun and dipped her, when she opened her eyes....wait. Something was different. She could sense Rose with her, sense her surprise and curiosity. She was taller, felt so much stronger.   
“I am....what am I?”  
The humans cheered, “That's amazing!”  
“You're beautiful!”  
She could feel Rose and Pearl, and yet she was her own?   
“I am..Rainbow Quartz?”

In the morning, Rose and Pearl headed back to the camp. That fusion, that experience was the most incredible thing Pearl had ever felt. She followed Rose with a new found sense of reverence. But fusion was only meant to be used for battle, until last night she wasn't even sure Pearls could fuse, or that different gems could.

Before they reached the camp, Rose came to a stop.  
“Pearl. We need to talk.”  
Rose suddenly seemed tired, “I brought you to show you the humans, I want to talk to Pink Diamond. I think we need to stop what we're doing here. This world...” She cast her arms out, “It has so much life! So much beauty, and uniqueness. Everything is so different, has so much potential.”   
She fixed Pearl with an intensity in her eyes, “I've seen the plans on the moon base, we need to save this world.”  
Pearl felt like a new gem, nothing like last night had ever happened to her and the thought that it would never happen again, that this would all be destroyed was too much to bear.  
Pearl nodded and with that nod became the first Pearl in history to go against the diamond authority.  
“Rose, I'm with you.”

Rose left her Amethyst lieutenant in charge and headed to the warp pad with Pearl. On the moon base, her arrival was met with surprise and Pearl hurried off to Pink Diamond.  
“I'll be back for you soon.”  
Rose stood in the entry room and looked up at the towering murals of the diamonds. She tried to calm herself down, gems were conditioned to please their diamond. She could only hope that Pink Diamond would agree with her.   
Pearl came down the stairs some time later. After seeing her so free last night, seeing her controlled now was sobering.   
“Pink Diamond will see you.”  
Rose nodded and followed her up the stairs. Pink Diamond sat at the console flipping through images of the construction progress.   
Rose knelt before her, “My Diamond.”  
“Rose Quartz, Pearl said you needed to speak with me about the planet colonization?”  
“My Diamond, I think we should change our plans for this planet.”  
Pink Diamond turned from her screen to give Rose her full regard.  
“And why is that?”  
“This planet had life I have never encountered on all our travels in this universe. Never have we come on a planet with so much unique flora and fauna. Some of the life forms are sentient, they create music and culture.”  
“and for this they should be spared?” Pink Diamond seemed unamused.  
“My Diamond, please listen to me. We can't follow through with this plan, it will destroy everything here.”  
“ENOUGH!” Pink Diamond stood suddenly, “Rose, you do not understand the entire picture. We need this planet, and plans will continue. We will not stop here, now return to your post.”  
“No.”  
Pink Diamond lifted an eyebrow, “No?”  
“I can't stand the though of all this being destroyed, of another planet joining the hundreds we have settled and hollowed out of minerals, stripping the planet with vast kindergartens. Mostly, I'm tired of killing. Tired of destroying. This place is full of creation and possibility, and this time I cannot do it!”  
Pink Diamond became quiet, “You will be shattered for this.”  
Rose drew her sword, “Not until I've stopped this.”   
Pink Diamond went to pull her weapon, but Rose knew if she finished the fight would already be over. She struck quickly, aiming straight for the stone. Pink Diamond was caught off guard, she hadn't actually been challenged in all of her memory. Before her mind caught up, Rose's sword struck her stone. Pink Diamond felt herself flicker, but hold together. It was staggering feeling that tiny fracture form. Rose Quartz gave her no time to recover, she pulled her shield and launched herself straight for Pink Diamond's gem. She struck with all her might, Pink Diamond fell back and Rose followed her down continuing to strike.   
It wasn't until Rose felt the gem shatter, and Pink Diamond's form dissipate that she stopped. Pearl stood to the side, mouth covered in horror, as she held in a scream.  
Rose dropped her shield and it winked out. She shook as she stared at her hands.   
It was Rose's distress that propelled Pearl into action.   
“Come on.”  
Pearl took her hand and led her out of the moon base. No one stopped her, she was Pink Diamond's Pearl after all.  
They warped back to the surface.  
“Rose, ROSE! Please snap out of it!”  
Rose stood there stunned, “Pearl, what have I done?”  
“Rose, you are going to save this planet. You aren't done, you have to talk to the gems on the planet before other forces arrive. The diamonds will respond to this, and most likely they will want to shatter everyone. I have seen them Rose, we're disposable to them. You have to save more then just the life here, but also the gems still here.”  
Rose drew herself up, “You're right.”  
“Pearl, you don't have to do this with me.”  
Pearl shook her head, “But I want to! Why would I ever want to go home if you're here?”  
Rose smiled and held out her hand, it was just like last night when they had fused. Pearl had never felt anything like that before, and she knew Rose had the answer. That Rose was how she could be more then just a Pearl. 

The next morning Rose gathered her troops.  
“Pink Diamond is shattered.”  
There was uneasy muttering.   
“I want to protect this planet. We gems have traveled from system to system, stripping planets of everything, destroying everything on them. We've drained our own world and still the diamonds treat us as disposable. I'm not going to do it again, and I want you to stand with me. This world is full of possibilities, and I want all of you to have the same. I want you to have choices, and a future. If you stay with me, we will fight. We will fight for this planet, and new will fight for control of our own lives. If you want to go back to the moon base, then you are free to go.”  
No one moved, and Pearl wasn't surprised. Gem society was strict, you never went outside your gem caste. This is the first time ever, possibly in all of gem history that anyone had suggested the idea they could do something else. That they had a choice.   
“Good. Now let's go smash some warp pads!”  
A cheer went up from the troops.  
“Rose! Rose! Rose!”


End file.
